The Forgery; or, Best Intentions.James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
The Forgery; or, Best Intentions.
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
It was a bright morning when he set out again for Milford, and all
looked gay and hopeful; but fatigue and impatience had done much to
diminish confidence, and the way seemed interminably long, the postboy
preternaturally slow. Half-way there, it was found necessary to stop
and feed the horses; and although Henry endeavoured, with a look of
importance, to enforce the necessity of great speed, he was too young
for his commands to be received with any great deference.
At about nine o'clock, however, a little village between bare, high
banks presented itself--a mere hamlet, with a chandler's shop and a
public-house--and shortly after were seen large gates and a lodge. The
gates were opened by an old woman, who seemed, like the few stunted
trees around, to have been bent by the prevailing wind; but a drive of
two miles through the large, wild park was still before the young
traveller. The scenery certainly improved, and gave him some
objects of interest to look at; the trees became large and fine;
pleasantly-varied hill and dale succeeded to round-backed rises; and
occasional glimpses of an old grey mansion-house caught his eyes as he
strained his sight out of the front windows of the chaise. The house
disappeared again in thick plantations as he got nearer, and it was
with surprise that he found himself suddenly driving up to the doors.
He was too much accustomed to good society to feel anything like
shyness, but yet he was somewhat anxious; and, advancing his head as
near the window as possible without putting it out, he looked up over
the house with some curiosity as the postboy rang the great bell.
To his consternation he perceived that all the windows were closed,
and bidding the driver open the door, he jumped out.
No one answered the summons of the bell, and he rang it again after
waiting several minutes. It required a third application to bring any
one out, and then it was merely a slipshod country servant, who came
round from the back of the house without condescending to open the
great doors.
Her first salutation was, "What d'ye want, man? Don't you know that
the old lord is dead, and they are gone to take the corpse over to
Wales, to the place where they're all booried?"
Henry professed his ignorance of all this, and anxiously desired to
know where the young lord was to be found. The girl, however, could
give him no information, but referred him to the steward, who lived
across the park--only adding, "It's a pity ye didn't come this time
yestermorn, for then ye'd have found the young lord and the old lord
too--only he was dead, poor body."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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